south korea's foreign minister tells newsday a deal on north korea's denuclearisation is not unravelling. but kang kyung—wah says any deal to remove nuclear weapons from the korean peninsula will take time. president trump wants to invite russia's leader to washington later this year, but says if things don't work out he'll be "the worst enemy vladimir putin's ever had." and this story is trending on bbc.com: burberry has come under intense criticism for destroying unsold goods worth millions of dollars last year. the fashion label took the action to protect its brand and stop goods being stolen or sold cheaply. that's all. stay with bbc world news. and the top story in the uk: crime recorded in england and wales has risen sharply, with the sharpest rise in violent crime, according to new figures. knife crime rose by 16%, while killings and murders were up

by 12%. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. microsoft is on cloud nine after its latest earnings report. where else can the giant tap into growth? co m m cost can the giant tap into growth? commcost throws in the towel on its bid for 21st century fox's building, paving the way for a disney takeover. good morning and welcome to asia business report, live from singapore, with me, mariko oi. it is earnings season singapore, with me, mariko oi. it is earnings season in corporate america and tech giant microsoft posted a

10%jump in and tech giant microsoft posted a 10% jump in revenue and tech giant microsoft posted a 10%jump in revenue to and tech giant microsoft posted a 10% jump in revenue to almost $9 billion compared to the same period last year. some say they are on their way to be the worlds‘s first trillion dollar company along with the likes of apple, alphabet and amazon. taxing analysts say that investment in cloud has been a big investment in cloud has been a big investment for microsoft. investment in cloud has been a big investment for microsoftm investment in cloud has been a big investment for microsoft. if you think about the digital transformation of their customers, a lot more customers an moving their workloads and applications to the cloud, driving a lot of growth for the business. and there seems to be a race between the tech giants to become the worlds's first trillion dollar company. in your view, become the worlds's first trillion dollar company. in yourview, can microsoft beat others? if you think about the four—way race with apple, alphabet and google, apple is ahead at $951 billion, so who is closer?

it is apple. that would also defend on the iphone launched in september. certainly microsoft can achieve that in two or three years. we are talking about yesterday how google was fined $5 billion by the european commission. can this kind of fine impact microsoft is well? as companies become larger they will become under more scrutiny by governments around the world and that will be a challenge for them. so they just that will be a challenge for them. so theyjust have to watch out, learn from google and push on their data privacy and security issues to ensure customers and governments that they are an ally in keeping their data safe. and other than the cloud, where else can microsoft grows ? cloud, where else can microsoft grows? the gaming industry, for example? yes, 3996 based on their financials. they don't break out the xbox sales, but they are going into streaming. if you think about the

rise of egaming and competitions around the world, including in china, that is an opportunity for them also. it has been described as a battle or dial in the media industry but us media giant comcast has said it will no longer attempt to buy 21st century fox, and in the bidding war with rival disney. paul blake says comcast drop the bid for fox to focus on buying a large stake in the british broadcaster sky. two motivations to drop the deal, the first simple one to get your head around is disney, the rival in the battle, won conditional approval which comcast was yet to receive, so that greased the way for disney to go ahead and acquire 21st century fox. the second one gets more complicated, the various other mergers happening in america and how they are playing out in court. that they are playing out in court. that the case outside this deal, not

related to this, was at&t and time water and comcast was watching that. at&t have the judge's approval to ta ke at&t have the judge's approval to take over time warner and that gave comcast confidence to bid for 21st century fox and now the government is appealing that case and that is what means comcast has given pause to and they have said this isn't the right decision for us —— time warner. it is all about the content. they want 21st century fox's content for future streaming services and to compete with netflix and other companies. in other news making headlines, japanese prosecutors indicted kobe steel after admitting to taking strength and quality data. the third biggest steelmaker was charged with violating the japanese u nsettled charged with violating the japanese unsettled petition law in relation

to data falsification after september 2017 in the latest of a string of revelations to have undermined faith in japan's reputation for quality. now, are you looking to study overseas? new research says australia has overta ken research says australia has overtaken the uk as the second most popular destination for international students, following the us. attracting foreign students is not just a the us. attracting foreign students is notjust a popularity contest, it is notjust a popularity contest, it is also a huge business. overseas stu d e nts is also a huge business. overseas students studying in the uk for example at $26 billion to the economy each year and in australia foreign students' enrolment has risen 12% this year from 2017. and here is one more nugget for you. international education is the country's third biggest exporter behind iron ore and coal. education a nalyst behind iron ore and coal. education analyst stephen parker says this is analyst stephen parker says this is an ongoing trend. there is a range of factors. australian universities

are good. over half of them are world ranked. the nation has organised itself to attract and welcome international students. it has a good reputation. accommodation for the most part is good. range of factors have come together. and there has been concerted government effort as well. is there the possible brexit in fact that the uk is almost coming across as unwelcoming to the students? that is possible. that is our perception. the whole international education market is driven by perception. so, whether it is the american president, whether it is brexit, it seems to have an effect on international markets. australia in the past has had its perceptions issues as well. at the moment australia is riding high. we think that brexit and perhaps the american presidency are diverging international students, particular to australia and maybe canada. and before we let you go, while it is

great business for the economy, what is the impact on local students, do they feel squeezed out? there are some issues. there is no question, no international student is displacing a domestic student. there are some perceptions. in some courses there are clearly more international students than domestic students. those students are unhappy. international students did not come here to it meets people from their own country. there are some issues. it has not risen to crisis or major problem level. australia is still a welcoming country. australia's infrastructure is under strain as much from visitors generally as it is from international students. from the billboards to tv advertising, now to digital content. the way that companies are targeting consumers is a lwa ys companies are targeting consumers is always evolving. the mobile phone is gaining popularity as an advertising medium. that has led one entrepreneur to start a company that

specialises in producing short videos for small screen. my colleague went to find out more about the secrets of her success and the story behind the company, the smalls. tell me how it works. do you go to businesses, do they come to you? it is both. some come to us and say they want nvidia like that. sometimes they come asking us to solve a communication problem —— they want a video. then we find a filmmaker to create it. what sort of growth have you seen? the smalls grows 1a0% year on year on average. we have seen a lot of that come out of asia. for example, we booked a big dealfor an of asia. for example, we booked a big deal for an automotive client in singapore where we make 36 episodes over 12 months on the intersection between art and technology. since you started in asia what challenges have you faced? it was a relatively new concept since we arrived so

there was education on how it works as well as education of what the market needs. what other challenges are there in the industry? i mean, are there in the industry? i mean, are people looking at their phones, do they to mainly read things? there are some challenges. the industry in terms of advertising space is a diversity problem with 93% of commercials made by men. that is a huge statistic. we are doing our best to correct that and putting forward women as options in every one of our pictures. from the point of view of individual businesses what can they gain from these services and why do they want to invest in video content? they have more challenge is to communicate and build audiences. that is facebook, instagram, twitter. they require huge amounts of different content for those channels and we helped to create that. before we go us president trump says he is unhappy about the federal reserve's decision to hike interest rates. in an interview with cnbc mr trump said he is concerned about the potential

impact on the us economy and he also added that he is worried the fed's rate hikes might put the us at a disadvantage while the bank ofjapan and the european central bank keep that monetary policy loose. this was not the first time he departed from a long—standing practice of us president is steering clear of commenting on fed policy. those comments from president trump is having quite an impact on the markets. the japanese nikkei taking the cue from wall street, where we saw a sharp fall after the us dollar pulled back from the high year levels. that is it for this edition of asia business report. thank you for watching. this is bbc news. the top stories this hour: south korea's foreign minister tells the bbc a deal on north korea's denuclearisation is not unravelling, but that it could take time. donald trump has defended his relations with russia and said he plans to invite vladimir putin to washington in the autumn. 8000 troops paying scottish rates of

income tax introduced earlier this year will receive a rebate from the uk government. 70% of military personnel in scotland pay £1000 more personnel in scotland pay £1000 more per year than their colleagues in the rest of the uk. the ministry of defence says it is making the payment to ensure that troops are treated equally. the scottish government says armed forces' families benefit from services not available elsewhere such as free tuition and prescriptions. scotland editor sarah smith has more. faslane naval base on the clyde, home to uk's fleet of nuclear submarines. keep 20 metres. keep 20 metres, roger. the submariners who operate them, the helicopter pilots who fly in here, are all paying more income tax than their comrades serving elsewhere because they are stationed in scotland. the mod say it is unfair for troops in scotland to be left out

of pocket, so they will make a payment to cover the tax changes, at the cost of about £4 million. down the river, the defence secretary is inspecting new navy frigates being built. he has not yet been able to secure a boost in defence spending or a pay rise for his forces but he can afford to make a political attack on scottish tax rates. service personnel don't have a choice as to where they are stationed. that's why we decided it was very important to act, because they don't have a say as to whether they are stationed in scotland, england, wales, or abroad. so we felt that there was a disparity that we wanted to address. an army staff sergeant serving in scotland pays about £117 more in scottish income tax. a full colonel could pay over £1000 more. but 30% of the forces in scotland, the lowest paid, pay less income tax and they will get to keep the difference. the scottish government argues that military families stationed in scotland enjoy more generous public spending. if you are a serving armed forces personnel stationed

here in scotland, you benefit by the investment we make in public services. so that is why, if you are sending one of your children to university, you don't have to pay £9,000 per year. that is why you don't have to pay £8.80 for a prescription charge. now that military personnel are being reimbursed for higher scottish taxes, other people working for the uk government in scotland may hope they will get the same, but there are no plans to extend the compensation beyond the armed forces. sarah smith, bbc news, faslane. we have much more, as always, on our website and you can get in touch with me on social media. now on bbc news, time for sport today. hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: american kevin kisner is the clubhouse leader after the first round of

the open championship at carnoustie in scotland. tiger woods makes a blistering start but ends the day on level par, after dropping shots on the back nine. and geraint thomas cements his place as the overall leader at the tour de france, after a gruelling 12th stage. hello and welcome to the programme, where we start with golf, and the first round of the open championship at carnoustie in scotland saw dry conditions on thursday, as the early groups made light of it. american kevin kisner leads by a stroke, on five—under, with defending champion jordan spieth struggling to one—over. it was another american who stole the majority of attention, tiger woods, who showed glimpses of his best as the 14—time major winner finished level par, playing this tournament for the first time since 2015. austin halewood reports.